ACTIVITY & INSTRUCTION DESIGN

Montessori teachers create hands-on educational activities for their students, and teach them how to step through them so the child can repeat the activity themselves. At Little Passports I tap into my Montessori-teaching skills when I design pen-to-paper activities, physical toys and crafts, and also when developing instructions for our projects. Each project is an opportunity to make the activity stem from the theme so the learning connection for the child is stronger.

PEN-TO-PAPER

When designing pen-to-paper activities at Little Passports, I would propose many activities, then for the ones chosen I would create design spec documents and art direct an illustrator to complete the vision.

Extending the learning into the activity helps reinforce the concepts. For the activities shown above, I reinforce that Baobab Trees are called “upside-down trees” with a spot the differences in the reflection showing them upside down. And did you know chameleons change colors to reflect their moods? The bottom activity is a color-by-emoji to reinforce this learning in a playful way.

HANDS-ON

Each Little Passports monthly box comes with a souvenir. In my time there we put resources towards evolving these souvenirs from small toys to hands-on activities. I would brainstorm with the product designers to find ways the content and items could support each other. In this felt food kit for 3-5 year-olds, we created a menu featuring international foods, and then an assembly guide on the back so kids could pretend to be both a waiter and a chef at an international restaurant. (Yes, that’s a hamburger for USA!)

INSTRUCTIONS

Whether it’s a simple craft or a more complex activity, it helps to have an outside perspective to explain the assembly. As part of the instructions design, I would create a spec for an illustrator from photographs of prototypes and then art direct, write, and sometimes even lay out the instructions.